“There are literally thousands of new species sitting in storage at
museums,” says Quentin Wheeler, a renowned taxonomist and founder of
the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State
University. Identifying these species isn’t just to satisfy curiosity;
we need a clear understanding of species in order to best organize
conservation efforts. Here’s the snag: To verify a new species, a
taxonomist must examine the type specimens—the preserved representative
samples of every known plant and animal—of each similar existing
species to document the differences. Some animals must be compared with
hundreds of specimens, and those might be anywhere in the world. Many
are too fragile to ship. But Wheeler thinks he has a solution that
could dramatically speed up the classification and identification of
species.